7. Mississippi State Bulldogs
All-time series: Tennessee leads 29-16-1
Years rivalry existed:
- 1919-1926 (Vols record: 5-3)
- 1948-1955 (Vols record: 4-4)
- 1957-1964 (Vols record: 5-2-1)
It’s hard to understate how often these teams played. They first met in 1907, when the Mississippi State Bulldogs were the Mississippi A&M Aggies, and both were members of the SIAA. Well, Tennessee football was 1-4 against them until 1921. Their rivalry began in 1919 with Mississippi A&M winning the first two.
They then joined the Southern Conference, and UT won five of the final six games of that rivalry, which ended with Robert Neyland’s first year. When A&M became the Mississippi State Maroons in 1932, they met for three straight years, including their first two in the SEC together, before the rivalry took off in 1948, as Robert Neyland was in his third stint.
During that run, MSU shocked the Vols in 1950, a national championship season for Rocky Top as they finished 11-1 and 4-1. That win, however, cost the Vols an SEC Championship and a shot at being the consensus national champion. So yes, things were tense between them. From 1948 to 1964, they met every year but 1956, and the Vols won the SEC that season.
The two schools remained connected even into the 1990s, when Jackie Sherrill took over the program and they played for the SEC Championship in 1998. But during the Neyland and Bowden Wyatt years, this was a critical game. Although the Vols controlled the series, it wasn’t a cakewalk.